Cossacks

Cossacks (Russ. Kasák), a race whose origin is hardly less disputed than that of their name. The latter has been variously derived from words meaning, in radically distinct languages, 'an armed man, a sabre, a rover, a goat, a promontory, a coat, a cassock, and a district in Circassia.' The Cossacks are by some held to be Tartars, by more to be of nearly pure Russian stock; but the most probable view is that they are a people of very mixed origin. Slavonic settlers seem to have mingled with Tartar and Circassian tribes in the regions to the south of Poland and Muscovy, in the Ukraine and on the lower Don, and to have given to the new race, first heard of as Cossacks in the 10th century, a predominantly Russian character. On the conquest of Red Russia by Poland, numerous Russian refugees fled to the Cossack country; and more on the Tartar conquest of Muscovy. The numbers of the Cossacks were also recruited from time to time by adventurers or fugitives from Poland, Hungary, Wallachia, and elsewhere; but in physique, as in language and religion, the Cossacks have always been mainly Russian. They distinguished themselves in war against Turks and Tartars, and were known as a powerful military confederacy in the 15th century. The kings of Poland and the czars of Muscovy employed them largely to defend their frontiers, especially against nomadic neighbours; but the connection between the Cossacks and their lords paramount was always very elastic, and was frequently repudiated to suit the convenience of either party. The Cossacks are still the outposts of Russian authority in Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. Living near, or, as 'free Cossacks' amongst, hostile peoples, they developed their peculiar military organisation—either forming a cordon of military settlements along the confines of occupied territory, or isolated camps in the nomad country beyond. Agriculture they eschewed; self-reliance and readiness at all times for defence or assault were their chief characteristics; though such of them as inhabited the banks of the Don and Dnieper, and their islands, became and still are skilful boatmen and fishers. Their political constitution was completely democratic; all offices were elective for one year only, and every Cossack might be chosen to any post, including the supreme one of Attaman or Hetman. This organisation they have in great measure retained, though the office of Hetman was abolished by the Emperor Nicholas, except as a title hereditary in the imperial family. There have been two main branches of the Cossacks—the Little Russian, or Ukraine, and the Don Cossacks. To the first belonged the Zaporogian Cossacks, those dwelling near the Porogi or falls of the Dnieper. From them again are descended the Tschernomerian Cossacks, those of the Kuban Valley and of Azov. From the Don Cossacks spring those of the Volga or of Astrakhan, of the Terek Valley, of Orenburg, of the Ural, and of Siberia. They furnish a large and valuable contingent of light cavalry to the Russian army, and are very patient of fatigue, hunger, thirst, and cold. The Don Cossacks give name to a province with an area of 61,886 sq. m., and a population of over 1,450,000 inhabitants, of whom 20,000 are Kalmucks. Though the Cossacks have generally been represented in the west of Europe as little better than fierce savages, they have left a very favourable impression on those who have dwelt amongst them. Jonas Hanway found them in 1743 'a civilised, and very gallant as well as sober people;' and many more recent travellers agree in asserting that in intelligence, cleanliness, refinement, and enterprise they are greatly the superiors of the average Russians. See Springer, Die Kosaken (Vienna, 1877); Wallace Mackenzie's Russia (1877); and Erckert, Der Ursprung der Kosaken (Berlin, 1882).